Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

The Professor Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 26, 2019

Lovers of cult television may remember a show called Run for Your Life, a kind of quasi-anthology series that despite never being a huge hit ran for three seasons in the sixties and offered Ben Gazzara as a guy with a terminal illness who kind of drifted from adventure to adventure (hence the anthology feeling) while awaiting the arrival of The Grim Reaper. Run for Your Life utilized the same kind of conceit that had made The Fugitive such an undeniably huge hit in terms of having a main character move from place to place and encounter new dramas each week, a similarity which was probably not a coincidence given the fact that both series were created by Roy Huggins. The Fugitive itself probably harkened back to other “character(s) on the run” series like Route 66 and even Have Gun - Will Travel where adventurers encountered new locations (and new guest stars) every week as they traveled from place to place. All of these aforementioned shows tended to play things (no pun intended) deadly seriously, and so at least in its attempt to bring a little humor into a tale of mortality, The Professor deserves kudos for a certain kind of ambition. It’s also kind of interesting that, while The Professor begins with a diagnosis of imminent death (in some ways rather amazingly like the opening credits of Run for Your Life), it takes a somewhat circuitous route to finally get to the same (literal?) territories that Run for Your Life and all those other shows exploited, with regard to titular prof Richard Brown (Johnny Depp) finally deciding to go on his own “road trip” in search of some adventures before the inevitable final curtain.

You might understandably think that getting a diagnosis of fatal cancer would be the worst news you’ll get that particular day, but as The Professor kind of cheekily gets into, all sorts of family drama might give that announcement a run for its money. Now of course the dysfunctions that come up once Richard tries to tell his wife Veronica (Rosemarie Sinclair-Brown) and daughter Olivia (Odessa Young) probably don’t rise quite to the level of being given a “countdown” to your imminent demise, but the film goes off on a number of interesting emotional detours when Richard isn’t able to share the devastating news with his family for various reasons which won’t be spoiled here.

Suffice it to say Richard reacts probably somewhat expectedly to the news, kind of going through all the stages of grief simultaneously, and ultimately engaging in a kind of self destructive downward spiral that reminded me of another film about an addled professor that has a pretty decidedly dark comedic flair, Butley. Unfortunately, the "humor" here is often overwrought and it's delivered by Depp in his most "arty" way, almost as if Captain Jack had migrated to the 21st century and started wearing tweed jackets. More problematic here, though, is the question of tone: writer and director Wayne Roberts initially seems to want to offer a pretty mordantly black comedy, but then gives in to more laugh free examinations of Richard's world falling apart, probably attempting to eke out some real human emotion but perhaps tending to leave the audience more confused feeling than anything.

The Professor Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Professor is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is yet another film of relatively recent vintage where I personally have not been able to dredge up any technical information on the shoot whatsoever. I'm assuming (and you know what that can lead to) this was digitally captured and finished at a 2K DI, but there's a pretty healthy layer of what I'm assuming is digital grain on display here, a layer which to my eyes anyway does not have the organic look of 35mm, but I've obviously been wrong before (as always with my reviews, if anyone has authoritative data to point me to, do so via private message, and I'll happily update the review). One way or the other, this transfer boasts generally superior detail levels, with nice fine detail benefitting from a number of close-ups throughout the story. There's not a ton of traditional visual "pop" here, but a number of evocatively lit scenes tend to keep the appearance of things nicely varied. The palette is rather warm and burnished, as perhaps fits its college environment. I noticed no compression anomalies of any import.

The Professor Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Professor features a fine sounding if often pretty front heavy DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. There are moments of discrete channelization or realistic surround effects, even before the imagery starts, with the shuffling of chairs in a doctor's office that occur before anything is actually seen, and some later scenes at the college in the classrooms offer decent if never really completely amazing immersion. There are several scenes outside where ambient environmental effects can dot the side and rear channels. There's a kind of playful score by Bryce and Aaron Dessner which is kind of rootsy and jangly in nature, and it resides quite winningly in the surround channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation.

The Professor Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Death and How to Live It: Making The Professor (1080p; 15:36) is an engaging EPK with some good interviews.

The Professor Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Professor tries to toe a pretty tenuous line between black comedy and more almost distraught feeling drama, and it's an uneasy mix most of the time. I think the film might have done better to simply have gone fully gonzo (especially considering its marquee star, who is of course a specialist in gonzo) and thrown caution to the wind. There are some individually quite effective scenes here, and Depp, even if he's a bit over the top at times, actually manages to convey the despair that Richard is feeling. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.